Dorset Cricket Society

Dorset Cricket Society

Résumé of events 2008-9

Year

Month

Day

Speaker

Topic

2008
Sept
25th

Ian Henderson

Having started our programme in an excellent manner last year, Ian repeated the trick this season, with a talk which covered not only the Dorset Rangers, but also playing for Hursley Park and many memories from Ian's career in sports reporting and broadcasting.

Oct
2nd

Alan Rayment

Alan is our own resident ex-Hampshire player from the late 1940's - 50's. This was a fascinating insight into the world of professional cricket, post war and the difficulties of existing on a salary of £7/10/-. Alan holds Dean Park in Bournemouth in great affection, as a ground where many significant games of his career occurred As well as cycling to the ground in Southampton for home matches, Alan and his wife were also dancing teachers, which was somewhat better paid! We heard many of Alan's favourite stories, including Fred Truman's response to being hit for two successive fours and the time his Captain, Desmond Eager, almost talked him out at a lunch!

9th

Douglas Miller

Douglas, who is a member of the Association of Cricket Statisticians, told us of his efforts to play and love cricket from the tender age of six to the present day. He is the author of many publications, including the only biography of the Glamorgan player, Don Sheppard. He also explained the difficulties that occur when the ICC decide that matches like the Australia v Rest of The World should have Test status. Alan Rayment, who spoke last week, implored Douglas to find one more First Class match to add to his career, so that he could achieve his double-century!

16th

Tim Hill

Tim is the current Chairman of the English Schools Cricket Association and he related how he had spent his year, from an opening dinner in Bournemouth which coincided with the Rugby Union World Cup, losing him star guest Robin Smith, to a very full if rather wet season, with a variety of festivals and competitions. He displayed a considerable amount of memorabilia from his year and paid tribute to the support of Dr David English of Bunbury cricket fame. Tim also found the time to run the U17's here in Dorset.

23rd

Lord's Visit

47 members, wives and friends had an excellent visit to Lord's. Our arrival at the Tavern Restaurant for a tasty lunch of roast beef followed by bread and butter pudding meant we were set-up for the afternoon tour. A visit to the pavilion included the Long Room, which was laid out for a dinner that evening, the Writing Room and then a trip upstairs to the England dressing room, with its Honours Boards detailing the centuries scored and 5 or 10 wicket hauls throughout the history of Test cricket at this ground. Ian Botham (1978) was the last England bowler to achieve 10 wickets in a match. From the Long Room bar we then visited the museum, with the famous Ashes urn. A tour around the ground included the various stands and the media centre, built for the 1999 World Cup. Further pictures can be found here.

30th

Vic Loveless

Vic is chairman of the New Forest cricket league and has written a book about the cricketers and personalities of the New Forest. Our own Nick Glossip has a page dedicated to him and we also heard of Simon Rowley. Vic has been hard at work on a second book, which includes areas of the forest as well as players. The book comes out in the Spring.

Nov
6th

Tony Davies

Tony has been associated with Somerset County CC for many years and is now involved in organizing their scouting system for young talent, to try to ensure that nobody slips through the net in the area. He told us of the impressive system of coaching and opportunities for both boys and girls. In addition he has been a member of Taunton Cricket Club for nearly sixty years and still helps out twice weekly to maintain their grounds.

13th

Martin Howe

Martin, who is a proud Yorkshireman gave an interesting slant on the 'aberration' by which Hampshire won the County Championship in 1961, thereby preventing a Yorkshire hat-trick. His provocative selection of a joint Hampshire/Yorkshire side both pre and post season brought many responses from his southern audience, including Alan Rayment who had played under Colin Ingleby-MacKenzie in previous seasons. By the end of an entertaining afternoon, the consensus was that Yorkshire would probably have won the title with Ingleby-McKenzie as Captain.

20th

Gerry Stickley

Gerry related his career as a Minor Counties and latterly First Class umpire in the 1990's, which he followed with a career as the current scorer for Somerset. He gave us an insight into umpiring at that level and some of the problems encountered. He was one of the umpires on the day when Dorset conceded 60 runs from one over by bowling wides. This was an effort to engineer a result. He has also scored a Test match, England v Sri Lanka, though he revealed that England no longer have an official scorer since Duncan Fletcher's time as coach. The person doing the job is officially scoring for the Press Association.

27th

Chris Finch

Chris, who is one of our members, spoke about cricket journalism and writing. He lamented the fact that many journalists at provincial papers were being laid off and that the four main broadsheets all have ex-cricketers as their correspondents. Chris is one of the judges for the Cricket Society Book of the Year award and his love of cricket and cricket writing showed through in his enthusiasm for the subject. Members were also grateful that he had brought along a small part of his varied collection of books for us to view.

Dec
4th

Jimmy Adams

Hampshire player Jimmy Adams made a return visit to the Society, to reflect in a frank manner on what had been, personally, a frustrating season. At least he made his maiden limited-overs century and captained the side during the summer. It was fascinating to hear from the inside about personalities such as Shane Warne. Jimmy also gave his opinions on the many promising youngsters that are on Hampshire's books and about the development of the Rose Bowl. It was also amusing to hear of dressing-room nicknames, such as Creepy (Crawley) and Shaggy (Udal).

11th

Peter Frampton

Peter took us on a journey from BOAC at Hurn Airport to Richmond Park via the Christmas Islands and nuclear bomb tests! A league cricketer for many years, he had both teammates and opponents within the appreciative audience. From an all out score of 9 for the team to a maiden century, the story of Peter's career was varied. After a fractured cheekbone, his wife dumped his kit in the bin, only for him to return and receive a gashed eyebrow in his comeback game! Once more he returned at his son's behest only to pull-up lame.

18th

Derek Hopkins

An excellent number of members attended the Christmas Buffet and Quiz, where there was great fellowship and another of Derek's brain-teasing quizzes to send us off for the holidays. See you in 2009!

2009
Jan
8th

Richard Mockridge

The new Year kicked off with a fascinating talk from Richard on cricket in Bournemouth from the early 1800's through to 1950, and how it was linked to the development of the railway to Bournemouth. The story took us from a map dated 1811 showing Bourne Mouth, through the first matches played in what are now the pleasure gardens, later in Springbourne, to the establishment of Dean Park where first class cricket was regularly played from 1871 until Hampshire left in 1993. And the railway link? Well, when the railway from Christchurch through Bournemouth was developed, one of the companies suggested building it through Dean Park. Fortunately they were unsuccessful and the line passed to the north-east of the ground.

15th

Stuart Barnes

Stuart is a coach with Gloucestershire CC and gave us a talk about his career in first-class cricket, first as a player and more recently as a county coach. The analytical approach of modern day players and cricketers was an eye-opener to many in the audience and particularly those who played the game in less recent times. Stuart gave a frank assessment of his county's failures in the 2008 and explained the pathways to improvement for next season. It was a revealing experience of modern-day thinking in the sports "business".

22nd

Dr David Allen

David is influential in maintaining the heritage of Hampshire CC. He has recently had a project to identify the photographs of every capped player that has ever represented Hampshire. Today he turned his attention to team photographs and pictures from 1922 up to the 1950's were displayed and discussed. In most cases the pictures were originally undated and there was many a detective story behind ascertaining their date and location. Ably assisted by many Hampshire members in the audience, as well as Alan, our former Hampshire batsman, David also managed to add some information to his knowledge-bank!

29th

John May

John has been a sports reporter for many years and is now a lecturer in sports journalism at Southampton Solent University. He explained how different life is for the modern sports reporter, who is primarily writing for the immediacy of the internet and only latterly for the next day's paper. Instead of one thoughtfully-crafted piece at the end of the day, a writer now will have to produce a lunchtime and evening edition in addition to the column inches. John provided an interesting insight into the pressures of modern sports reporting.

Feb
5th

Paul Hendy

Paul is managing director of The Hendy Group, a major sponsorship partner of Hampshire CC. He tried to answer the question of why his company sponsor a cricket team. Although they have a major base in both Southampton and Portsmouth the bitter rivalry of football supporters preclude sponsoring either team, while Hampshire Cricket encompasses all the county. As well as being a keen cricketer himself, which helps, cricket is an ideal opportunity for corporate entertaining. They also support youth cricket through Parley Sports Club and over the years Paul has becoming a personal friend of players such as Robin Smith, Shaun Udal and Shane Warne. A most interesting afternoon

12th

Members

Our annual 'bring a sporting item' afternoon produced an eclectic mix. There was a postcard signed by W.G. Grace (see photo) inviting someone to play the following weekend, signed pictures of Donald Bradman and a scoresheet from a match where a side was bowled out for 9, but without a doubt the item which brought down the house (and his trousers) was the knitted Jock strap modelled by Pete Frampton.

19th

Andy Marsh

Andy was a fine sportsman, captaining England U-19 schoolboys at cricket and playing for the South of England schoolboys at football, whilst at Bournemouth School. In his talk he related many occasions when players such as Dennis Amiss and Derek Shackleton had given their advice and time freely to help him progress in the game. He also had the experience of playing both with and against Gordon Greenidge. After a stint playing professional football with Bournemouth, he then trained as a PE teacher and has spent over 30 years coaching both here and in America, putting back his love of the sport for the benefit of younger players.

26th

Peter Brown

Peter was a keen cricketer and footballer in his younger years, but rather fell into the leisure industry by accident. From his early beginnings as a lifeguard at a pool, he has risen to become general manager of one of the largest leisure facilities in the country - the Littledown Centre. Thousands of people, young and old pass through the centre every week, assisted by a staff of over 350. In addition they manage facilities at Stokewood Rd and The David English Centre. The centre was rated top in the country by an inspection team last year. Well worth the visit, as was Peter's story!

March
5th

John Linley

John told us the remarkable story of his career at one of the leading cricket clubs in London. He started playing for Ealing CC in 1954 and will complete 55 years this season. The club also has two other players who have over 50 years to their credit. Ealing run no less than 5 XI's on a Saturday and have had considerable success in recent seasons. John has amassed over 4000 wickets for the club, a testament not only to his dedication and determination to recover from a serious leg fracture in his 40's, but also to the record keeping of his club.

12th

Alan Castell

Alan Rayment

Ray Flood

An afternoon of reminiscing, as ex Hampshire players from the 40's, 50's and 60's recalled fast bowlers faced, runs scored and games won. Tales were told of Trueman and Tyson, Ray's 138 no and Alan Castell's 9th innings record partnership with Danny Livingstone which still stands. A thoroughly entertaining and nostalgic afternoon.

19th

David Kelly

David told us of the long history of Dorchester Cricket Club. Founded in 1856 the club now boasts a new pavilion and soon will have a scorebox as well. In recent years they have amalgamated with Dorchester Wanderers and Casuals. Many memories of the ground and its characters were exchanged in a entertaining afternoon. It was good to see some members of Dorchester CC present in the audience.

26th

Peter Anderson

April
2nd

Hambledon Visit

On a superb spring day, 45 members set off to the 'home' of cricket - the Bat & Ball Inn and the Hambledon ground. With the kind assistance of Dr David Allen, we were able to access the pavilion to see some of their memorabilia before an excellent lunch and talk from him in the pub. Post-lunch we visited the village and church in Hambledon before rounding off the day with a cream tea at the local pub. Pictures from the visit are here.

9th

Douglas Miller

For our final event of the season, we combined the AGM lunch with a fine quiz by Douglas Miller, rounded off by our traditional end-of-season cream tea. At which point the catering committee declared - enough! More goodies to follow from late September.

To see memories of the previous year's programme click here
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Year	Month	Day	Speaker	Topic
2008	Sept	25th	Ian Henderson	Having started our programme in an excellent manner last year, Ian repeated the trick this season, with a talk which covered not only the Dorset Rangers, but also playing for Hursley Park and many memories from Ian's career in sports reporting and broadcasting.
	Oct	2nd	Alan Rayment	Alan is our own resident ex-Hampshire player from the late 1940's - 50's. This was a fascinating insight into the world of professional cricket, post war and the difficulties of existing on a salary of £7/10/-. Alan holds Dean Park in Bournemouth in great affection, as a ground where many significant games of his career occurred As well as cycling to the ground in Southampton for home matches, Alan and his wife were also dancing teachers, which was somewhat better paid! We heard many of Alan's favourite stories, including Fred Truman's response to being hit for two successive fours and the time his Captain, Desmond Eager, almost talked him out at a lunch!
		9th	Douglas Miller	Douglas, who is a member of the Association of Cricket Statisticians, told us of his efforts to play and love cricket from the tender age of six to the present day. He is the author of many publications, including the only biography of the Glamorgan player, Don Sheppard. He also explained the difficulties that occur when the ICC decide that matches like the Australia v Rest of The World should have Test status. Alan Rayment, who spoke last week, implored Douglas to find one more First Class match to add to his career, so that he could achieve his double-century!
		16th	Tim Hill	Tim is the current Chairman of the English Schools Cricket Association and he related how he had spent his year, from an opening dinner in Bournemouth which coincided with the Rugby Union World Cup, losing him star guest Robin Smith, to a very full if rather wet season, with a variety of festivals and competitions. He displayed a considerable amount of memorabilia from his year and paid tribute to the support of Dr David English of Bunbury cricket fame. Tim also found the time to run the U17's here in Dorset.
		23rd	Lord's Visit	47 members, wives and friends had an excellent visit to Lord's. Our arrival at the Tavern Restaurant for a tasty lunch of roast beef followed by bread and butter pudding meant we were set-up for the afternoon tour. A visit to the pavilion included the Long Room, which was laid out for a dinner that evening, the Writing Room and then a trip upstairs to the England dressing room, with its Honours Boards detailing the centuries scored and 5 or 10 wicket hauls throughout the history of Test cricket at this ground. Ian Botham (1978) was the last England bowler to achieve 10 wickets in a match. From the Long Room bar we then visited the museum, with the famous Ashes urn. A tour around the ground included the various stands and the media centre, built for the 1999 World Cup. Further pictures can be found here.
		30th	Vic Loveless	Vic is chairman of the New Forest cricket league and has written a book about the cricketers and personalities of the New Forest. Our own Nick Glossip has a page dedicated to him and we also heard of Simon Rowley. Vic has been hard at work on a second book, which includes areas of the forest as well as players. The book comes out in the Spring.
	Nov	6th	Tony Davies	Tony has been associated with Somerset County CC for many years and is now involved in organizing their scouting system for young talent, to try to ensure that nobody slips through the net in the area. He told us of the impressive system of coaching and opportunities for both boys and girls. In addition he has been a member of Taunton Cricket Club for nearly sixty years and still helps out twice weekly to maintain their grounds.
		13th	Martin Howe	Martin, who is a proud Yorkshireman gave an interesting slant on the 'aberration' by which Hampshire won the County Championship in 1961, thereby preventing a Yorkshire hat-trick. His provocative selection of a joint Hampshire/Yorkshire side both pre and post season brought many responses from his southern audience, including Alan Rayment who had played under Colin Ingleby-MacKenzie in previous seasons. By the end of an entertaining afternoon, the consensus was that Yorkshire would probably have won the title with Ingleby-McKenzie as Captain.
		20th	Gerry Stickley	Gerry related his career as a Minor Counties and latterly First Class umpire in the 1990's, which he followed with a career as the current scorer for Somerset. He gave us an insight into umpiring at that level and some of the problems encountered. He was one of the umpires on the day when Dorset conceded 60 runs from one over by bowling wides. This was an effort to engineer a result. He has also scored a Test match, England v Sri Lanka, though he revealed that England no longer have an official scorer since Duncan Fletcher's time as coach. The person doing the job is officially scoring for the Press Association.
		27th	Chris Finch	Chris, who is one of our members, spoke about cricket journalism and writing. He lamented the fact that many journalists at provincial papers were being laid off and that the four main broadsheets all have ex-cricketers as their correspondents. Chris is one of the judges for the Cricket Society Book of the Year award and his love of cricket and cricket writing showed through in his enthusiasm for the subject. Members were also grateful that he had brought along a small part of his varied collection of books for us to view.
	Dec	4th	Jimmy Adams	Hampshire player Jimmy Adams made a return visit to the Society, to reflect in a frank manner on what had been, personally, a frustrating season. At least he made his maiden limited-overs century and captained the side during the summer. It was fascinating to hear from the inside about personalities such as Shane Warne. Jimmy also gave his opinions on the many promising youngsters that are on Hampshire's books and about the development of the Rose Bowl. It was also amusing to hear of dressing-room nicknames, such as Creepy (Crawley) and Shaggy (Udal).
		11th	Peter Frampton	Peter took us on a journey from BOAC at Hurn Airport to Richmond Park via the Christmas Islands and nuclear bomb tests! A league cricketer for many years, he had both teammates and opponents within the appreciative audience. From an all out score of 9 for the team to a maiden century, the story of Peter's career was varied. After a fractured cheekbone, his wife dumped his kit in the bin, only for him to return and receive a gashed eyebrow in his comeback game! Once more he returned at his son's behest only to pull-up lame.
		18th	Derek Hopkins	An excellent number of members attended the Christmas Buffet and Quiz, where there was great fellowship and another of Derek's brain-teasing quizzes to send us off for the holidays. See you in 2009!
2009	Jan	8th	Richard Mockridge	The new Year kicked off with a fascinating talk from Richard on cricket in Bournemouth from the early 1800's through to 1950, and how it was linked to the development of the railway to Bournemouth. The story took us from a map dated 1811 showing Bourne Mouth, through the first matches played in what are now the pleasure gardens, later in Springbourne, to the establishment of Dean Park where first class cricket was regularly played from 1871 until Hampshire left in 1993. And the railway link? Well, when the railway from Christchurch through Bournemouth was developed, one of the companies suggested building it through Dean Park. Fortunately they were unsuccessful and the line passed to the north-east of the ground.
		15th	Stuart Barnes	Stuart is a coach with Gloucestershire CC and gave us a talk about his career in first-class cricket, first as a player and more recently as a county coach. The analytical approach of modern day players and cricketers was an eye-opener to many in the audience and particularly those who played the game in less recent times. Stuart gave a frank assessment of his county's failures in the 2008 and explained the pathways to improvement for next season. It was a revealing experience of modern-day thinking in the sports "business".
		22nd	Dr David Allen	David is influential in maintaining the heritage of Hampshire CC. He has recently had a project to identify the photographs of every capped player that has ever represented Hampshire. Today he turned his attention to team photographs and pictures from 1922 up to the 1950's were displayed and discussed. In most cases the pictures were originally undated and there was many a detective story behind ascertaining their date and location. Ably assisted by many Hampshire members in the audience, as well as Alan, our former Hampshire batsman, David also managed to add some information to his knowledge-bank!
		29th	John May	John has been a sports reporter for many years and is now a lecturer in sports journalism at Southampton Solent University. He explained how different life is for the modern sports reporter, who is primarily writing for the immediacy of the internet and only latterly for the next day's paper. Instead of one thoughtfully-crafted piece at the end of the day, a writer now will have to produce a lunchtime and evening edition in addition to the column inches. John provided an interesting insight into the pressures of modern sports reporting.
	Feb	5th	Paul Hendy	Paul is managing director of The Hendy Group, a major sponsorship partner of Hampshire CC. He tried to answer the question of why his company sponsor a cricket team. Although they have a major base in both Southampton and Portsmouth the bitter rivalry of football supporters preclude sponsoring either team, while Hampshire Cricket encompasses all the county. As well as being a keen cricketer himself, which helps, cricket is an ideal opportunity for corporate entertaining. They also support youth cricket through Parley Sports Club and over the years Paul has becoming a personal friend of players such as Robin Smith, Shaun Udal and Shane Warne. A most interesting afternoon
		12th	Members	Our annual 'bring a sporting item' afternoon produced an eclectic mix. There was a postcard signed by W.G. Grace (see photo) inviting someone to play the following weekend, signed pictures of Donald Bradman and a scoresheet from a match where a side was bowled out for 9, but without a doubt the item which brought down the house (and his trousers) was the knitted Jock strap modelled by Pete Frampton.
		19th	Andy Marsh	Andy was a fine sportsman, captaining England U-19 schoolboys at cricket and playing for the South of England schoolboys at football, whilst at Bournemouth School. In his talk he related many occasions when players such as Dennis Amiss and Derek Shackleton had given their advice and time freely to help him progress in the game. He also had the experience of playing both with and against Gordon Greenidge. After a stint playing professional football with Bournemouth, he then trained as a PE teacher and has spent over 30 years coaching both here and in America, putting back his love of the sport for the benefit of younger players.
		26th	Peter Brown	Peter was a keen cricketer and footballer in his younger years, but rather fell into the leisure industry by accident. From his early beginnings as a lifeguard at a pool, he has risen to become general manager of one of the largest leisure facilities in the country - the Littledown Centre. Thousands of people, young and old pass through the centre every week, assisted by a staff of over 350. In addition they manage facilities at Stokewood Rd and The David English Centre. The centre was rated top in the country by an inspection team last year. Well worth the visit, as was Peter's story!
	March	5th	John Linley	John told us the remarkable story of his career at one of the leading cricket clubs in London. He started playing for Ealing CC in 1954 and will complete 55 years this season. The club also has two other players who have over 50 years to their credit. Ealing run no less than 5 XI's on a Saturday and have had considerable success in recent seasons. John has amassed over 4000 wickets for the club, a testament not only to his dedication and determination to recover from a serious leg fracture in his 40's, but also to the record keeping of his club.
		12th	Alan Castell Alan Rayment Ray Flood	An afternoon of reminiscing, as ex Hampshire players from the 40's, 50's and 60's recalled fast bowlers faced, runs scored and games won. Tales were told of Trueman and Tyson, Ray's 138 no and Alan Castell's 9th innings record partnership with Danny Livingstone which still stands. A thoroughly entertaining and nostalgic afternoon.
		19th	David Kelly	David told us of the long history of Dorchester Cricket Club. Founded in 1856 the club now boasts a new pavilion and soon will have a scorebox as well. In recent years they have amalgamated with Dorchester Wanderers and Casuals. Many memories of the ground and its characters were exchanged in a entertaining afternoon. It was good to see some members of Dorchester CC present in the audience.
		26th	Peter Anderson
	April	2nd	Hambledon Visit	On a superb spring day, 45 members set off to the 'home' of cricket - the Bat & Ball Inn and the Hambledon ground. With the kind assistance of Dr David Allen, we were able to access the pavilion to see some of their memorabilia before an excellent lunch and talk from him in the pub. Post-lunch we visited the village and church in Hambledon before rounding off the day with a cream tea at the local pub. Pictures from the visit are here.
		9th	Douglas Miller	For our final event of the season, we combined the AGM lunch with a fine quiz by Douglas Miller, rounded off by our traditional end-of-season cream tea. At which point the catering committee declared - enough! More goodies to follow from late September.